Google's Arts and Culture app is the most-downloaded free app for both iOS and Android, meaning it's surpassed heavy hitters like Messenger and YouTube in just the past few days. . Arts and Culture has been around since 2016. Until last week, though, not many people used it. The recent surge in popularity comes from the addition of a facial recognition feature. The feature allows users to upload a selfie to find museum paintings that look like them.
Net neutrality may live to see another day. Attorneys General from 22 states--including California, Illinois and Mississippi-- are filing a lawsuit to block the FCC's recent vote to repeal Obama-era regulations.
New York State AG Schneiderman calls the rollback a "disaster for New York consumers and businesses, and for everyone who cares about a free and open internet."
YouTube is setting new rules for its content in an effort to regain advertisers' trust. For starters, employees will watch the platform's most popular videos to ensure paid ads are running alongside content that is not offensive or controversial.
Also, in addition to 10,000 views, channels will need one thousand subscribers and 4,000 hours of view time. YouTube hopes to have the review finished by the end of march
Daniel Newman, Founding Partner and Principal Analyst at Futurum Research, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says the markets are going to feel very uncomfortable receiving news of more potential setbacks for chip manufacturers after already enduring a lengthy chip shortage.
The federal government and numerous industries have been preparing for a greener future, setting goals to reduce greenhouse emissions by switching to electric vehicles. But the next hurdle to clear is convincing the wider public to get on board. Arun Kumar, managing director in automotive practice at AlixPartners, spoke to Cheddar's Ken Buffa about consumer trends related to EV transition and said he believes a widespread switch is imminent in 2022. Despite this, he acknowledged there are still significant obstacles to overcome, including high prices and more charging stations. "Without charging infrastructure, people are going to struggle with increasing adoption of electric vehicles in the future," Kumar told Cheddar. "I think by 2030 our estimate is that about a million chargers need to be put in place nationally in the U.S."
The pandemic has supercharged the creator economy, and there are no signs of it slowing down no matter when the pandemic officially ends. Creators prove to be a key factor in driving purchasing decisions and retail sales, and an increasing amount of platforms are taking advantage of the social influence. Karissa Bell, senior editor at Engadget, joins cheddar news to discuss the creator economy boom.
The National Women's Soccer League is partnering with Voyager Digital as its first-ever cryptocurrency brokerage in a multi-year deal. Marla Messing, interim CEO of the NWSL, and Steve Ehrlich, CEO of Voyager Digital, joined Cheddar to discuss benefitting the league and educating players and fans as a way of democratizing cryptocurrency. Messing explained that the players themselves will own half the assets as part of how the deal is structured. "My hope is, just in terms of the expectations of crypto over the long term, that I hope a lot of them are able to just let it sit there," she said. "And that one day this will be a nice retirement account for them."
The E-V maker Tesla has had a wild year. The company managed to continue to dominate the U.S. electric vehicle space despite growing competition and production delays. As the end comes to an end, Tesla finds itself growing richer and richer. Author of Risk Ritual Newsletter Richard Smith, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Paul Travers, CEO of Vuzix, joins Cheddar News to discuss the different scenarios that its augmented reality smart glasses can be used for and his outlook for this technology in 2022.
